Pistorius version: Please God, help me

Pistorius version: Please God, help me - The West Australian

An image from the video shows Oscar Pistorius walking on his stumps with his hand outstretched as if holding a gun.

Oscar Pistorius' defence team has threatened legal action against Channel 7 after it aired extraordinary video last night of the Olympic athlete re-creating the events leading up to the death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The video, recorded on behalf of his legal team, was not shown at Mr Pistorius' murder trial.

The footage, obtained by Seven's Sunday Night, lasts almost an hour. Mr Pistorius is seen walking fast on his stumps holding an imaginary gun as he re-enacts his version of what happened.

He describes how he believed a burglar had broken in and says he was unaware that Ms Steenkamp, whom he had been dating for three months, was in the toilet when he fired four shots through the door, killing her.

Mr Pistorius insists that he shot Ms Steenkamp by accident but South African prosecutors allege he killed her during an argument.

The never-before-seen footage, which Mr Pistorius' defence team did not want released, shows the athlete repeatedly reliving the event in graphic detail.

In it, the 27-year-old Paralympian is heard for the first time re-creating how he cried for help on Valentine's Day last year, which has become central to his trial.

Neighbours have testified they heard a man and a woman screaming on the night Ms Steenkamp was killed.

Mr Pistorius' lawyers claimed that the athlete's high-pitched voice could be mistaken for a woman's.

"Reeva, there is someone in the house, call the police, call the police, call the police babe," Mr Pistorius yells in the video.

"Get out! Get out of the f . . . ing house! Get out! Reeva, call the police, get out!

He is later timed putting on his prosthetic legs, which he said he did before he broke down the toilet door with a cricket bat and realised he had killed Ms Steenkamp.

It takes him 25.61 seconds.

In one scene, he picks up his sister - who has taken the position of Ms Steenkamp's body on the bathroom floor - and carries her down a flight of stairs. Wearing a green Nike vest and black lycra shorts, he is also shown walking forward quickly on his stumps, aiming the imaginary pistol.

Throughout his trial, Mr Pistorius' defence team has argued his disability meant he was highly vulnerable in dangerous situations and more prone to act out of fear.

Channel 7, which revealed the existence of the footage on Saturday night, devoted last night's edition of Sunday Night to the case.

The video was filmed by American forensic animator Scott Roder as part of Mr Pistorius' pre-trial preparation.

Mr Roder was invited to South Africa 10 months ago by Mr Pistorius' uncle to meet the athlete and forensically examine his version of events. He spent weeks interviewing Mr Pistorius and told Sunday Night's Ross Coulthart he believed the athlete was innocent.

Mr Roder, who supplied the footage to Sunday Night, said he believed Ms Steenkamp's death was the result of a fatal misunderstanding.

"As Oscar is moving toward this perceived threat and he is yelling at this intruder to get out of his house and he is asking for Reeva to go and hide or call the police or get down in an attempt to protect her, she's locking herself in the toilet thinking the threat is moving towards her," he said.

"Oscar is coming closer and his voice is getting louder and more aggressive so she believes, I would think, that the threat is now coming towards her."

Mr Roder said he believed Ms Steenkamp moved a wooden magazine rack to take cover behind the toilet and the noise was mistaken by Mr Pistorius to have been made by the perceived intruder and he fired.

"I think we have a classic situation of a double misinterpretation where Oscar believes Reeva is the intruder, and Reeva believes Oscar is chasing the intruder toward her," he said. "So she's taking shelter against the potential intruder and he's perceiving her as the intruder and it's a tragic misunderstanding."

Mr Roder said the double-amputee sprinter, known as the Blade Runner for his J-shaped prosthetic limbs, was a different man when he removed them.

"When he's on his prosthetics, you know he's very tall broad-shouldered athletic guy he looks like he can really handle himself," Mr Roder told Sunday Night.

"But when he takes his prosthetics off and he's on his stumps, he's short . . . the confidence washes away from his face."

In the video, Mr Pistorius says he believed a burglar had used a ladder, which has been lying by the side of the house, to break in.

"I stood there for some time, not sure how long," he says.

"I wasn't sure if somebody was going to come out of the toilet and attack me.

"I wasn't sure if someone was going to come up the ladder and point a firearm in my house and start shooting.

"So I stood there where I was and kept screaming."

Sunday Night also aired an interview last night with Ms Steenkamp's parents, who described the moment they were told their daughter had been killed.

"I had a phone call at 7 o'clock in the morning and the man said, 'Is that June'," her mother, June Steenkamp says. "(He said) Do you have a daughter Reeva? And I said yes.

"He said there has been an accident. She has been shot. I said, 'You better tell me now if she is dead or alive' and he said, 'I am very sorry to tell you but she is dead'.

"I said, 'Well, how'? 'She has been shot but what actually has happened . . . it's clear, it's just Oscar there, the gun and your daughter' and that's all he said."

Mr Pistorius' legal team was last night claiming copyright over the video of the re-enactment and said it was sold by Mr Roder without their consent.

Mr Pistorius' murder trial resumed last week after a long adjournment so the Johannesburg-born runner could undergo psychiatric evaluation. He faces up to 25 years jail if convicted.